January 13 - Trevor Rabin

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On this day, in 1954, Trevor Charles Rabin was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Rabins were a musical family. Dad was first violin in the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, mom was a classical pianist and ballet dancer. And, as Trevor puts it, all three of their children learned to play the piano whether they wanted to or not. At the age of twelve, Trevor started using his piano lesson books to teach himself how to play the guitar. He began playing in the equivalent of South African garage bands, until 1973 when he joined the group Freedom's Children and toured with them for a year. The name of the band's tour that year was State of Fear, which just happened to also be the name of a song Trevor wrote. After returning home, he began to study arranging and orchestration at the University of Johannesburg with the intent to become a conductor. The intent didn't last long.

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At nineteen, Trevor went into the South African military for his mandatory year of service as part of the entertainment division. He lead the big band and performed in a rock group, spending hours and hours practicing the guitar in between. After leaving the army, Trevor met up with some old band mates to form the group Rabbitt. Technically the group had released a single back in 1972, but their debut album came out in 1975. Boys Will Be Boys would win Trevor an award for his orchestral arrangements and a Best Contemporary Music SARIE for the band (a SARIE is like a South African Grammy). Two years later, Rabbitt released a second album, A Croak and A Grunt in the Night, winning another Best Contemporary Music SARIE plus a production SARIE for Trevor. That same year, Trevor released a solo album and managed to gain the interest of a US record label. International sentiment towards South Africa at the time was pretty low, though, and, unable to get a visa to tour America, Trevor decided to move to London.

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Over the next few years, Trevor released a new solo album each year and sat in on some of the recordings of Manfred Mann's Earth Band. In 1981, he moved to Los Angeles, where he met up with some of the former members of the rock group Yes. As they began putting together an album of Trevor's songs, other members of the defunct group wanted in until the group basically was Yes with the addition of Trevor. The album they put out in 1983, 90125, became the groups highest selling record ever and they all toured for the next two years on its popularity. Yes's next album, Big Generator, was less successful, the lead singer struck out on his own and the group took a two year break. Yes reformed a second time in 1990, released two more records and toured until 1994, when Trevor decided he needed a career adjustment.

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In 1978, Trevor had written some score music for a film he admits he's never watched, a blaxploitation picture called Soul Patrol. Scoring films piqued his interest and when he tired of tour life, he looked for a way into the film industry. He found it when he gave Steven Segal guitar lessons and got to score Steven's next film, 1996's The Glimmer Man. And don't think this change in the focus of his career was just a whim. Trevor was dead serious about honing his craft as an composer. In order to practice, he wrote scores to a couple of silent films on the piano and then transcribed them for orchestra.

The following year, Trevor became part of the Disney family when Michael Bay hired him to score the Touchstone Pictures film Con Air. Like Danny Elfman and Tim Burton, Trevor and Michael hit it off and began a long collaboration. So far, they've made 13 movies together. Trevor's Disney credits include the scores for Armageddon, Enemy of the State, Gone in 60 Seconds, Bad Company, and The Guardian, all for Touchstone. For the Walt Disney Pictures brand, he's done Whispers: An Elephant's Tale, Remember the Titans, National Treasure, Glory Road, National Treasure 2, Race to Witch Mountain, G-Force, The Sorcerer's Apprentice and I Am Number Four. His composition Titans Spirit from Remember the Titans, is frequently heard during coverage of the Olympics and was also used by Barack Obama during his first presidential run. You can also hear Trevor's work whenever you ride Mission: Space at Epcot.

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Trevor has also managed to release three more solo albums in between all his film score work and, in 2016, reunited with some of his former Yes bandmates a third time and has been touring with them all over the world. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. He reputedly has several albums in various stages of production happening, not to mention more film scores on the horizon. As he celebrates his 65th year on this earth, his creative output shows no signs of stopping.